al-Malik al-Ashraf Jan Balat

Jan Balat ibn Abd Allah was bought by the sword-bearer Bashtak and presented to al-Ashraf Qaytbay after Qaytbay asked for him. Qaytbay made him one of his personal attendants, brought him close, taught him the Qur'an and arithmetic, and gave him a rank of a thousand. Later, in the reign of al-Nasir ibn Qaytbay, he held the post of grand sword-bearer, then the governorship of Aleppo, where he stayed six years, and then the governorship of Syria, where he stayed seven months. When he came to Cairo in the reign of al-Zahir Qansuh, he was made grand amir and married to the sultan's sister ¹.

Al-Adil Tuman Bay kept stirring up strife between him and al-Zahir until they became hostile to each other. Jan Balat overcame al-Zahir, who left the Cairo citadel and gave it up to him. Jan Balat took the throne on the morning of Monday, the second of Dhu al-Qada in the year 905. He reigned for six months and sixteen days and built the Janbalatiyya madrasa outside Bab al-Nasr. He was then deposed, exiled to Alexandria, and strangled there. He was buried there for about a month, then moved to Cairo and buried in the tomb of his teacher Qaytbay. Later his body was returned to the tomb he had prepared for himself outside Bab al-Nasr, and when it was moved there it had not decayed ¹.